Wheat reigns at the Canadian Museum of CivilizationNew permanent exhibit tells history of Prairie lifeHull, Quebec, June 10, 1999 — Today a new permanent exhibit on the history of wheat farming and life on the Canadian Prairies — housed in a full-size replica of a Saskatchewan grain elevator — opens in the Canadian Museum of Civilization's Canada Hall.
King Wheat tells the story of Prairie farmers organizing in the 1910s and 1920s, culminating in the creation of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool — at that time the world's largest agricultural co-operative. Visitors will see a life-size re-creation of the historic moment when over 45,000 signed farmers' contracts brought the Wheat Pool into being, 75 years ago. Another memorable moment is captured in a display on the 1939 royal tour of Western Canada, where visitors will be able to slide into a 1930s small-town diner booth and consult a "menu" of historical information about that event.
The elevator housing King Wheat is a full-size replica of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool elevator in Melville, Saskatchewan as it appeared in June 1939 when Their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (now the Queen Mother) stopped there on the first cross-Canada tour by a reigning British monarch.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (SWP) and the Barrie A. and Deedee Wigmore Foundation have generously supported the realization of King Wheat.
"Our goal has always been to make visitors more aware of Canada's history and its remarkable heritage. This new exhibit is a powerful statement of the effort and the determination that built the West," said Joe Geurts, Acting President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. "Countless people showed tremendous pride in their heritage by assisting in the research and development of this exhibit."
Visitors to King Wheat will get a taste of the history of the West's farm economy and will also see the inner workings of a grain elevator, an icon of Prairie life whose numbers are dwindling because of economic and technological changes. The exhibit uses many original artifacts from the traditional wooden elevators to reconstruct the mechanisms that lifted huge loads of grain up into vast storage bins.
"It is an honour for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool to celebrate its 75th anniversary by paying tribute to the sacrifices made by the founders of our organization, which has grown from its Prairie roots into a dynamic global agri-food co-operative," said SWP President and Chairman of the Board, Leroy Larsen. "I deeply respect the pioneers who persevered against tremendous odds to survive, and gave us the strength to continue meeting the new challenges facing Prairie agriculture today."
The Canada Hall is a unique permanent exhibition that chronicles one thousand years of history, starting from the landing of Vikings in Newfoundland in A.D. 1000. As the exhibits proceed chronologically, they also advance geographically from East to West. The project is now in Phase II and has reached the Prairies. The King Wheat exhibit joins the St. Onuphrius Ukrainian Catholic Church from Smoky Lake, Alberta, which was dismantled, shipped to Ottawa and reconstructed inside the Canada Hall.
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